The drawn out battle of bottle vs. sippy cup

Abbi was introduced to a bottle very early on. Even though Em was breastfeeding, there were times when she would pump and I would feed Abbi. This allowed Em to get some sleep; it allowed me to bond with Abbi and it gave us peace of mind that there wouldn’t be any issues adapting to a bottle when it came time to stop breastfeeding.

souce: Munchkin.com

Abbi took hold of a sippy cup sometime earlier this year. She will gladly drink her water from one of the many Munchkin sippy cups that we have. The handles allow her to flail the cup around without spilling an ounce. The sippy cups are still sometimes pawns in her little game of “If I drop it, how many times will Mom and Dad pick it up?” The answer to that question is 234,831; especially if the drop is followed by the cutest little ‘uh-oh’ that you’ve ever heard.

Right around Abbi’s first birthday, we started the weening process. It took very little time at all. Em didn’t offer and Abbi didn’t ask. It was interesting to watch. Both Em and Abbi were playing a game. Neither wanted to be the first to flinch. Soon Abbi forgot about it and “All Done”.

Even though Abbi was done breastfeeding, we still gave her breast milk in a bottle. We did (and still do) have dozens of bags frozen pumped milk in the basement freezer. The sippy cup remains a staple for water when Abbi is in her highchair at meal time.

About a week or so ago, we noticed that Abbi was very clingy to her bottles. Even after they were empty she would carry them around and get upset if we tried to take them. If you know anything about breast milk, you know that it doesn’t take long to smell rotten. Dirty bottles aren’t something you can just let Abbi play with and leave with her toys…which would be her preference.

Em and I felt she was getting just a bit too attached to the bottle. So, we tried giving her the milk in a sippy cup. Remember, she’ll drink water and juice out of a sippy cup like it was going out of style. When she lifted the sippy cup to her mouth and tasted milk, she was done. Not a chance. The lip curled, the milk got spit out down the front of her and it was laid to the side of her highchair tray. The sippy cup was dead to her now.

maybe if we get her this it will help?

Pour that same milk out of the sippy cup and into a bottle and it was guzzled down like she hadn’t had a drink in days. Wash out the sippy cup and re-fill it with water and Hallelujah, it was alive again! We want her to continue receiving the nutrients from the milk (now mixed with whole milk) and we’re trying to eliminate some of the clingy-ness to the bottles.